History Does Repeat Itself

These Ozark Hills are chock-full of legends, myths and folklore... with plenty of history to keep us on an even keel. And while some of this history is distasteful and painful to recall; most of it makes me proud to be an Ozark Native Son.

And sometimes, history repeats itself.

On April 5th, 1971, sometime before the stroke of midnight, it started to snow. It continued into the next day and when it finally quit, we had five to six inches of wet, heavy snow on the ground.

Spring had already sprung but someone forgot to inform Old Man Winter!

I was seven years old and we lived at the Conklin house at Junction Hill. April 6th was on a Tuesday, so I'm pretty sure that school was dismissed for the day. The forsythia bushes were in bloom and the wet, heavy snow, blowing in from the north, weighted down the evergreen limbs. All this is shown in the pictures below. (I'm really grateful to my Dad for being a "picture taker" and documenting this weather anomaly.) It was also documented by West Plains' very own, unique, dedicated weather-lady; Mrs. P.S. Kriegh!(See the chart below)

This morning, April 7, 2018, Forty-Seven years and a day later, West Plains received another snow. Not as much as the 1971 snow; but enough to let you know OMW (Old Man Winter) still had another puff left in his snowpipe! (However, our temperature this morning of 24° was significantly colder than the low of 31° in 1971)

Our old 60's model Ford Econoline van and 1968 Chevrolet Impala are snow plastered on the north side. Center picture, on the horizon is where the Junction Hill Church is located.

This was the back yard of the Conklin house, facing toward the southwest. Center picture is the forsythia bush, in full bloom, covered in snow. 

The little evergreen tree southeast of the house, weighted down with snow. 

This is the historical weather information that I pulled from the NOAA site for April 1971. According to their map, the location of  the reporting station for this information was somewhere near the west end of West Main Street - Where Mrs. P.S. Kriegh lived!

2018 - Possibly an half-an-inch...

The view of our front yard (And the flowers in the pot are fake!!)